Well, it turns out 2024's Joker: Folie a Deux is a good movie. Fuck me for trusting the vast majority of critics and audiences. I mean, it's not a perfect film but its near total rejection by audiences and critics is kind of baffling now that I've seen it. If it weren't for the fact that Quentin Tarantino and John Waters both praised the film, I may have never known its true nature. Now, if I were inclined to look for a conspiracy, and we're told that's an invariably crazy thing to do these days, I might consider the timing of a film that says it's wrong to assassinate people for class resentment being released a couple months before the internet turned Luigi Mangione, the assassin of an insurance CEO, into a folk hero. One thing's for sure, the implicit philosophy behind the reaction to Joker 2 seems to be a 180 degree reversal of that behind the criticisms of the first film, such as Jenny Nicholson's disgust at the people in her screening's audience who reacted rapturously to the first film's climactic assassination.
The conspiracy minded among us might also note that the film has a bloated, 200 million dollar budget despite being filmed on a few relatively cheap sets with a small cast. Might this have provoked class resentment? This film also features almost no political rhetoric.
Tarantino compared the film to Natural Born Killers, the Oliver Stone directed film which Tarantino wrote the screenplay for. I noted the similarity, too. Steve Coogan's character, a journalist who interviews Arthur/Joker, is basically Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Natural Born Killers. Frankly, Coogan's character is a better version (anyway, Tarantino has been vocal about how much he hates Stone's adaptation of his screenplay). His introduction of Arthur for the camera concludes with a mention of the Murray Franklin interview and a wry observation, "We all know how that turned out," at which Joker can't restrain a chuckle. The viewer might be sympathetic to Joker on this point--Coogan's character is likely unaware of his own crassness, which is funny. Funnier than the broad caricature Robert Downey Jr. played in Natural Born Killers.
The other three movies I was reminded of were Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, and, as always, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Lady Gaga's character has a fixation on Joker which reminded me of Scottie's fixation on Madeleine in Vertigo. When it becomes clear Madeleine was a fantasy mutually conceived of by Scottie and Judy, Scottie finds he can't love the living woman. When the fantasy of Joker falls apart, Lee, Gaga's character, finds she can't love the living man.
Watching the film, I was astonished to notice many points in which reviews seem to have been not only wrong but plainly dishonest. In Ryan George's Pitch Meeting on YouTube, he jokes about how Lee couldn't have known about Joker's famous staircase to have met him there. Yet there's a movie within the movie that Lee saw which featured the staircase. Many reviews say the songs have no relevance to the action but I found each and every one was vitally important. The love story between Lee and Joker is totally bound up in the musical numbers, just as it's totally bound up in their mutual fantasy. How could critics fail to see the relevant use of songs like "Bewitched" and "For Once in My Life"? Or, jeez, "The Joker"?
The most significantly used song is "That's Entertainment" from The Band Wagon, a clip of which the characters actually watch. It's the point on which the film most resembles Natural Born Killers as it makes that connexion between an audience's compulsion to turn real murder into an entertaining fantasy.
My main problem with the film is Arthur's ultimate rejection of the Joker persona. It's not that I think it's a bad idea; I think this shift creates a lot of opportunity to explore ideas and I like how this demon takes on a life beyond Arthur. I just wish the movie had better expressed Arthur's motivation for rejecting the persona that empowered him. The implication is that he found it inadequate after he was physically assaulted by the prison guards but, if that's the case, I don't see how he has the emotional strength to take any initiative afterwards. I suppose his love for Lee might explain it. If the movie had made a point about how he'd found a kind of salvation through love, even a love for a criminal accomplice (again, a path trodden by Natural Born Killers), I might have enjoyed the turn more.
Phoenix and Gaga are both great, the songs are great. This is a good movie. Don't believe what they're telling you.
Joker: Folie a Deux is available on Max.
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